


Accounting for Time

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [429]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Coping, Developing Friendship, Fear, Gen, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-07 01:32:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11048511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: Ginny keeps obsessive track of every moment of every day. She won't lose time again.





	Accounting for Time

Ginny’s second year, she keeps a hyper-active focus on all her activities. She can’t write them down in a journal, even if she knows the book is harmless, and she doesn’t like keeping the record in her mind–can’t trust that, either–so she writes it on her skin, under the sleeve of her robes. She checks in with herself constantly, making herself take notes.

She’ll never lose time because someone else has been riding her body around again.

She doesn’t like to be alone–doesn’t like nobody to watch her–but also is afraid of how she’ll behave around others, so she vacillates back and fourth between the extremes, depending on her mood.

She’s…functioning. Holding it together. Opening books gives her the oddest chill and she wakes up with nightmares three nights out of five, but she’s functioning. It’s fine.

She gets knocked unconscious in charms class my a stray spell, and professor Flitwick has her back on her feet in an instant, but it’s enough time to send her reeling.

She doesn’t know what she’s been doing. She doesn’t know where she’s been, what she’s done. She wasn’t watching. They say she was unconscious, but last year she thought she was just dozing, at first, stressed from school and tired, and look what that became, look at what she did…

Professor Flitwick sends her to the hospital wing along with a Ravenclaw meant to watch over her. Because Ginny Weasley, Ginny knows, should not be left alone.

“You’re okay, you know,” an airy voice says. “If Terry’s spell hurt you Madam Pomfrey will fix the problem immediately. Can you walk?”

“I can walk,” Ginny says. “I’m not hurt.” It feels like she’s careening through the corridors, staggering her way along like someone forgotten how to walk.

“You look hurt,” Luna observes.

“I’m fine.” An idea strikes her. “Tell me what happened. Exactly.”

“Well, we were practicing, like we were supposed to. But Terry…I don’t think he’s quite got it yet, does he, and he missed, and it hit the book and that hit you. You fell to the floor, stopped moving. It was a bit scary,” Luna says. “Professor Flitwick had you up after only a moment, though.”

One minute. She spent the entire time on the floor. She didn’t go anywhere, say anything, do anything.

“Promise me that’s true,” she demands.

Luna looks at her, eyes wide and Ginny thinks she’ll leave, maybe run screaming. But all she does is say, “I promise. Do you want to keep walking?”

Ginny doesn’t really need the hospital wing. She’s not hurt and some part of her believes Luna, even if she’s not sure if she can trust even that part of herself. “Just let me rest,” she says. “That’s all Madam Pomfrey will tell me to do, anyways.”

Luna guides her to an out-of-the-way window and sits beside her. “Here,” she says, pulling a magazine out of her bag. “The latest Quibbler. Daddy sent it this morning. You might like it. There’s a puzzle.”

And that is how Ginny Weasley became friends with Luna Lovegood.


End file.
